1 Kings 3:16-28
The Language of the Soul
Thanksgiving Message

“Our Father Hears Us, When Our Words Can’t Help Us”

16  Then two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17  The one woman said, “Oh, my
lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house.
18  Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. And we were alone. There was
no one else with us in the house; only we two were in the house. 19  And this woman’s son died in the
night, because she lay on him. 20  And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me, while
your servant slept, and laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast. 21  When I rose in
the morning to nurse my child, behold, he was dead. But when I looked at him closely in the
morning, behold, he was not the child that I had borne.” 22  But the other woman said, “No, the living
child is mine, and the dead child is yours.” The first said, “No, the dead child is yours, and the living
child is mine.” Thus they spoke before the king.
23  Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead’; and the
other says, ‘No; but your son is dead, and my son is the living one.’ ” 24  And the king said, “Bring me
a sword.” So a sword was brought before the king. 25  And the king said, “Divide the living child in
two, and give half to the one and half to the other.” 26  Then the woman whose son was alive said to
the king, because her heart yearned for her son, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no
means put him to death.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him.”
27  Then the king answered and said, “Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means put
him to death; she is his mother.” 28  And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered,
and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do
justice. 1

Openining Illustration: The 2010 Chilean Miner Rescue
In August 2010, thirty-three miners in Chile were trapped underground when a massive collapse
sealed them inside a chamber nearly half a mile beneath the surface.
From the outside, the situation looked hopeless.
No sound.
No movement.
No proof of life.
Rescue workers began drilling exploratory shafts—not to free the men, but simply to learn the truth:
Were they alive, or were they already gone?
For seventeen days, they drilled in uncertainty. Every attempt came back silent. No voices rose from
the deep. No message came. There were no words to go on… nothing that could testify to the truth
of what was happening below.
1 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Ki 3:16–28.

And then—on day seventeen—a drill bit broke through into a small section of the refuge chamber.
When they pulled the bit back up, taped to the end of it was a small scrap of paper, written in thick
red marker:
“Estamos bien en el refugio los 33.”
“We are well in the shelter—the 33.”
No voices.
No radio.
No eyewitnesses.
Just a revelation—a truth that no one could have discovered by listening to the surface noise.
The truth was there all along.
They just needed the right moment… the right method… to reveal it.
POI:
That’s what we see in 1 Kings 3.
Two women, two stories, and no clear way to know what’s real. No evidence, no witnesses, no
certainty.
Their words couldn’t reveal the truth.
But the king’s God-given wisdom could.
Solomon does what no human judge could do on his own—he cuts through confusion and brings
hidden truth into the light.
And church, that’s our hope:
Our Father hears us, even when our words can’t help us—and He can reveal truth in places
where all we can see is darkness.

I. The Timing
a. Solomon reigned from about 970–931 BC
b. “As has been stated, David left a significant kingdom to his son. He had built the
nation largely through conquest. Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Syria had
fallen to his armies. These nations continued to be under Israel’s authority during the
first decades of Solomon’s era, which presented the new king with an administrative
problem, not a military one. Since he controlled virtually all the land between Egypt
and the Hittite kingdom, Solomon was a major player in international affairs.” 2
c. Solomon certainly has a full plate.
i. Eliminated rivals (Adonijah, Joab, Shimei)
ii. Cemented alliances (including marriage to Pharaoh’s daughter)
iii. Begun administrative and building reforms

II. Desperate for Help
2 Paul R. House, 1, 2 Kings, vol. 8, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers,
1995), 107.

a. The Story Starts with two prostitutes. Immediately, in some of our minds, we shift
our thinking. Perhaps we say, “Their sin brought about these problems…” “Well,
they wouldn’t be in this mess if they worked a normal job…” Both are true…but
what isn’t true is that they value to God any less, or that their problems don’t matter.
b. Solomon’s careful attention to detail is a reminder that God’s wisdom and divine
blessing was upon him.

III. Before a King?
a. Israel’s kings were sometimes called upon to settle particularly hard cases (2 Sam
12:1–6; 14:1–11) 3
b. Solomon has the crown but not the heart of the nation, at least not yet. This is early
in his reign, and people just are not certain of how he will rule. There were probably
doubts about his succession on the heels of the controversy for the throne.

IV. The Pickle
a. The situation is a classic her word vs. her word.
b. One is lying, but which one is lying?
V. The Solution
a. The sword reveals the truth
b. Compassion and love reveal deception and lie
VI. The Point
a. How wonderful it is that every Christian has access to the throne of one who is
“greater than Solomon” (Matt. 12:42), and who promises to give wisdom and to
meet every need. Certainly all of us need to depend on the wisdom of God, not the
wisdom of this world (1 Cor. 1:18–31; James 3:13–18). 4
b. The story, ultimately, isn’t about Solomon, the prostitutes, or the surviving child.
c. It is about a just God, who shows us the truth.
d. It is about a righteous judge, who finds a way for love to prevail.
e. It is about a king of kings, who does not forget his people even in sin.
VII. Conclusion

When the true mother cried out, she showed a love willing to lose everything if it
meant her child would live. Her compassion exposed the lie, revealed the truth, and
allowed justice to rise in a situation no one else could untangle.
And that is where this story leads us—not simply to Solomon, or to two women, but
to the God who stands behind it all. A God who sees the vulnerable, who listens to
the desperate, who acts with perfect wisdom, and who brings truth to light when all
we can see is confusion.
As we come to Thanksgiving, this is our gratitude:
that we have access to a King far greater than Solomon—One who never misjudges,
never overlooks, and never turns away those who come to Him in need.
We give thanks not because life is simple, but because our God is faithful. We give
thanks not because we are strong, but because His wisdom is sufficient for every
desperate place we face.
So this week, when we gather around tables and reflect on God’s goodness, let this
story remind us:

3 Paul R. House, 1, 2 Kings, vol. 8, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers,
1995), 112.
4 Warren W. Wiersbe, Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the Old Testament (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1993), 1 Ki
3.

We serve a God who sees, a God who hears, and a God who rules with a wisdom
that always leads to life.